COPD patients: 1 in 8 people over 40 have it. Test yourself

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the third leading cause of death in the world, second only to ischemic heart disease and stroke. There are nearly 100 million COPD patients in my country, especially in people over 40 years old, with a prevalence rate as high as 13.7%, which means that one in eight people over 40 years old is a COPD patient, and men are more likely to suffer from COPD. The prevention and treatment of COPD is urgent, but the public's awareness of the disease is not enough, and health education should be strengthened.

Simple self-test for early detection

1. Do you often cough up phlegm?

2. Do you have more difficulty breathing than people of your age when doing activities such as exercising or climbing stairs?

3. Are you over 40 years old?

4. Do you smoke now or have you ever smoked?

5. Have you been working in a job that exposes you to hazardous factors such as dust and biofuels for a long time?

If you have 3 or more symptoms, you should go to the hospital for a comprehensive pulmonary function test, which is the gold standard for diagnosing COPD.

The clinical symptoms of COPD are mainly repeated and continuous cough, sputum and wheezing that gradually worsen, which are usually caused by airway or alveolar abnormalities caused by long-term exposure to harmful particles or gases. Its risk exposure factors mainly include environmental exposure (such as smoking, biofuel exposure, oil smoke, air pollution, etc.) and individual factors (such as genetic abnormalities, abnormal lung development and aging, etc.).

COPD can be divided into acute exacerbation and stable stage according to the severity of symptoms. Acute exacerbation refers to the acute exacerbation of the patient's symptoms, with obvious cough, sputum, shortness of breath, wheezing, increased sputum volume or fever and other obvious inflammatory reactions in a short period of time. Stable stage refers to the patient's symptoms being stable or mild, with no acute exacerbation within 6 weeks.

Traditional Chinese medicine has advantages in prevention and treatment

COPD is closely related to "cough", "asthma", "lung distension" and other symptoms in traditional Chinese medicine. The disease is always a mixture of deficiency and excess: the excess is mainly caused by external pathogens, phlegm, water retention and blood stasis; the deficiency is caused by deficiency of the lung, spleen and kidney. The treatment is often based on both the symptoms and the root cause, and the emphasis is often determined according to the characteristics of the different stages of the stable period and the acute exacerbation period.

Clinically, the main treatment goals are to strengthen management during the stable period, reduce the number of acute exacerbations, and delay disease progression. Traditional Chinese medicine has obvious advantages in the treatment of COPD. The use of traditional Chinese medicine in the acute exacerbation period has the comprehensive advantages of anti-infection, cough and phlegm, and asthma. The synergistic use of traditional Chinese medicine can reduce the dosage of Western medicine and adverse drug reactions, and shorten the course of the disease. A large amount of data has shown that the long-term use of traditional Chinese medicine can effectively improve the clinical symptoms of patients in the stable period, improve the quality of life of patients, relieve respiratory muscle fatigue, improve lung ventilation function, and delay the progressive decline of lung function, thereby reducing the number of acute attacks.

In clinical practice, aerosol inhalation therapy mainly relieves bronchospasm, relieves cough, sputum, wheezing symptoms, moisturizes the airway to remove phlegm, and has anti-inflammatory effects. In acute attacks of COPD patients, aerosol inhalation of traditional Chinese medicine can be used to improve clinical symptoms, allow the drug to reach the diseased area directly, relieve bronchospasm, avoid the effects of antibiotic resistance and systemic side effects, and make up for the shortcomings of using Western medicine alone. However, there is currently a lack of traditional Chinese medicine preparations specifically for aerosol inhalation in clinical practice.

Daily care to prevent recurrence

Treat winter diseases in summer: During the dog days, the pores of the human body open up. Applying acupuncture points at this time is conducive to the circulation of qi and blood, and promotes the entry of drugs into the meridians and internal organs through the acupuncture points. Select acupuncture points such as the lung meridian, spleen meridian, and bladder meridian, and select Chinese medicines such as white mustard seeds, white aconite, asarum, white scutellaria, and peucedanum from the lung meridian to make a plaster. In the summer, you can also do more moxibustion, select Zusanli, and use moxa sticks for moxibustion, 5 to 10 minutes each time, once a day or every other day, until the skin is slightly red. Pay attention to smoke exhaust measures when performing moxibustion.

Diet therapy: The main foods that can be used for diet therapy include almonds, perilla, ginger, monk fruit, lily, ginkgo, Fritillaria cirrhosa, loquat, walnut, tangerine peel, ginseng, Poria, yam, lotus seed, Euryale ferox, jujube, Tremella fuciformis, Cordyceps sinensis, etc. They can also be made into medicinal food, such as Cordyceps stewed chicken, Angelica and ginger mutton soup, lily and yam porridge, Euryale ferox walnut porridge, etc.

Daily care:

① Quit smoking as soon as possible: Smoking (active and passive smoking) is an important cause of repeated aggravation of COPD. It is better to quit smoking early rather than late. It is recommended and encouraged that everyone quit smoking in a way that suits their personal preferences and needs. If necessary, you can go to the hospital's smoking cessation specialist clinic to seek smoking cessation support and choose medication help.

②Avoid wind and cold, and be careful in your daily life: Keeping the air moist is conducive to the discharge of respiratory secretions; encourage patients to cough to promote sputum discharge; pay attention to keeping warm in daily life to prevent colds and respiratory infections; carry out appropriate rehabilitation exercises to improve the body's resistance.

③ Appropriate diet: To improve nutritional status, a light, easily digestible, nutritious diet should be given. Long-term regular high-quality protein diet (lean meat, eggs, milk, etc.) can help improve the resistance of COPD patients and promote muscle function recovery. Malnutrition may accelerate the deterioration of the disease; avoid spicy and irritating foods. "The lungs and large intestine are the inside and outside of each other", and attention should be paid to keeping the bowel movements smooth.

④ Promote emotional well-being: COPD patients suffer from the disease for a long time, have a heavy mental burden, and are prone to anxiety and depression. Family members should help patients regulate their mood and build confidence.

Source: China Traditional Chinese Medicine News

Author: Zhang Hongchun, China-Japan Friendship Hospital